This course investigates human interactions with the natural world in the Hawaiian Islands. It is interdisciplinary, drawing on insights from history, geography, anthropology and the natural sciences. Topics covered will include island biogeography and evolution; the natural and human histories of Hawai‘i; Hawaiian and American attitudes toward the environment; the impact of introduced diseases, plants and animals in Hawai‘i.
Course Outcomes
- Describe cause and effect relationships in the interaction between humans and their environment throughout history.
- Analyze global processes as humans, plants, animals and diseases move around the world.
- Investigate traditional Hawaiian attitudes toward nature.
- Explain the evolution of American attitudes toward nature.
- Apply outcomes 1 through 4 to events specific to Hawai’i and the Windward side of O’ahu in order to evaluate current environmental problems from a historical perspective.